Meanwhile, back at the car saga ...

The arrival of Nicholas did nothing to stem the tide of news about Katia, our stolen Honda Civic.

Last Monday, as Sarah's contractions began to intensify, we got a voice mail from a detective at the Baltimore City impound lot that the police had found the car! It was exhilirating to hear that there might be hope, but of course it was Memorial Day and I couldn't get anyone on the phone to get more information. On Tuesday afternoon, though, while at the hospital with Nicholas but a few hours old, I got another phone call from the Baltimore PD. It appeared, they reported, that there was some pretty bad damage to the ignition (for obvious reasons), and that the license plates had been removed, but that otherwise the car appeared in good shape. I tried not to get my hopes up, because the city has absolutely no track record of inspiring confidence. All I had to do was fax a release form (notarized) to the impound lot so that GEICO could tow the car to our mechanic, and start the process of assessing and repairing the damage.

Easier said than done.

I planned to leave the hospital on Wednesday morning for a few hours to take care of getting everything set up. I went home and printed out the form letter, and drove it over to get it notarized. Then I tried to get that place to fax it. Failure. So I drove to a second store, which put the fax through at about noon. I went home and called GEICO, and told the agent I had released the car. Great, all taken care of. I made myself a quick bag lunch to bring back to the hospital.

As I was ready to leave, I got a call from GEICO. The impound lot had not received the fax, and the agent was trying to get someone on the phone to help. After two or three minutes, she came back on the line and said she was having trouble getting through, but would keep trying. Finally, we got a detective at the unit, who said that it wasn't in my paperwork, but she would check the fax machine. A solid five minutes later she came back and reported it wasn't there. We checked the fax number I'd used, and I assured her that I had a confirmation page in front of me. "I'm a detective, I don't do faxes," was her reply. Grrr. Back out to fax the letter over again. Back to GEICO. Again difficulty getting someone on the line, but the agent this time said she would simply call back if she had trouble.

I returned to the hospital four hours after leaving for a two-hour project—by this point I had missed a visit from Nicholas's pediatrician, and Sarah's obstetrician—and assumed that all was going well because I hadn't heard anything for about two hours.

You probably know where this is going.

Apparently I was supposed to fax a copy of my driver's license over, which of course the impound lot hadn't mentioned ever, and which seemed odd since a tow truck driver was showing up with a letter I had had notarized to get the car. So now I begged the mercy of the nurses at the nurses station, who let me use the photocopier and the fax machine to send the letter and my license.

No good. So GEICO had me fax the materials to them, and would try in the morning, which somehow finally worked.

But on Thursday the car was towed to our mechanic, and I went over the look at it. The ignition is a mess, though the thieves left the plastic intact when they pulled it off. The car aesthetically looks fine otherwise, save for the plates. But—and here's where things could get messy—the right front window was down, which meant that the right front seat was soggy. The mechanic said he could fix the ignition (yay!), but we couldn't get the window up. So the battery is dead, but until they try to power up the battery, we won't know whether there was other damage to the electrical system (or, for that matter, the window). The adjuster looked at it today, and repairs are underway.

So progress. And the possibility we may get the Civic back is somewhat higher than it was a week ago. And, most importantly, the City of Baltimore no longer has any control over the car. Hallelujah!